The Cruelty of Time
by TheWelcomeStranger
Summary: 10th Doctor, Rose, and The Lady. AU. Even the Doctor didn't see this one coming, after all, it was too much to ever hope for. The Lonely God- wandering alone no more.


The Cruelty of Time

Disclaimer: Don't own it, but I love the new Doctors. 

It was an abandoned, cold, windswept planet. Rose and the newly regenerated Doctor had found a welcome refuge: a greenhouse there, of all things. Wandering among the overgrown plants and vines was soothing after a somewhat traumatic recent experience.

"Doctor- come look at this statue." Rose reached out to touch the marble cheek of a sleeping female form and drew back as soon as she touched the warm 'statue' with a sharp gasp.

Rose's gasp, more than her request, drew him to her side. He looked down at the woman and his face shifted into an unreadable expression.

"What? What's she doing? Doctor?" Rose had rarely seen him so... utterly still. He was always manically laughing, grinning, talking a hundred miles a minute. Though, she still had to get used to his new being.

"She's a Time Lord." He said quietly, not taking his eyes off the woman's face. As Rose stared at him incredulously he forced his eyes to meet hers.

"Do you know her?" Rose breathed. He ignored her to voice his own thoughts. Now he was more like himself. He paced around the block of stone the woman was lying on.

"The question is what is she doing here? Did she escape the time war? Where is her TARDIS? Why is she not with her ship?"

"What's she doing here, in a coma, that's what I want to know." Rose broke in and he glanced at her again before standing still. He frowned down at the prone figure. He remained stoic as he stepped forward, leaning down to listen to her chest. He knew he was stalling- he never wanted to burden Rose with this.

The Doctor sighed and rubbed a hand over his face.

"She's alive?" Rose asked quietly.

"Rose, sometimes... this... gets... tiring." 'This' didn't begin to describe the bitterness, the emptiness of space, and above all the consuming loneliness. At the worst of times the dull resignation to your fate. But still, Rose drew closer to him, unconsciously offering comfort in asserting her presence. He relaxed just as unconsciously.

"She's sleeping because she's... immortal?" Rose's usual uncanny grasp of a situation came through.

"It's not what many of us- few of us- chose. In fact... of course! She only has one heart, why didn't I see before?" Just like that he was off on one of his rambles. Rose only heard snatches as she studied the woman's face.

(..."can't sense her the usual ways, brainwaves down to near nothing and all")

Rose felt excited for the Doctor, he'd found another, he was no longer the last of his kind... she wanted the woman to wake up and tell her why she was sleeping.

(..."Perhaps her TARDIS is lost...")

Her excitement was now tempered by apprehension. There were two of them now. Where did this leave her? This Time Lord she had become companion to, it was not just what a life he offered her, what he took her away from and asking only to be herself in return. It wasn't just girlish affection. She was sure she loved him, and it could pain her and make her smile all in a second. She felt this way, and she was mortal.

("can't be... way before my time... and that's saying something") The Doctor glanced at Rose.

She looked up as the Doctor had quieted and returned to her side. "Are you alright?" he asked seriously. Rose managed a smile and replied that she was fine. "Just wondering, what you just figured out."

"She's supposed to be a myth." He gestured to her wildly. "She's the Lady."

"_The _Lady? Like, you're 'The' Doctor?" Rose asked.

"Full marks, Rose Tyler." She smiled at his praise proudly.

"I could be The Rose." She commented jokingly and he smirked.

"So, what's her story then? What's the myth?" She felt like she wasn't getting many answers from him.

0o0

Unseen, the 'statue' opened startling blue-grey eyes.

"Well, The Rose," The Doctor teased. "Way way way way way way way way way way before my time, even before the Time War, over 5000 years ago there lived two Time Lords..."

The Doctor described the legendary meeting- "At the height of our planets beauty- a day when one sun would be sinking beyond the blue horizon, and the other would be just rising, mingling darkening blue and dawn at once, and the entire world would glitter in the moment she was walking in the gardens..."- and the love of two Time Lords, the Lady and the Forester. Now animated, now whispering, now seating Rose close on the neverfading flame coloured grass, he lowered his voice to tell of his death beyond hope of regeneration. Rose had silent tears streaming down her cheeks as he fell quiet, finally adding, "This must be her. Only the breaking of your hearts can cause the long, slow sleep of the Time Lords. And he, he must have created this place, all for her."

"The worst thing was I didn't tell him." A third voice finished the sentence. Heartbreakingly sad, deep, and husky with disuse, it was still distinctly feminine.

"I didn't tell him every single day I was so thankful for him, and that I loved him with all my hearts."

Sharply the travelling companions looked up at the woman, no longer marble-like but with soft flowing brown hair and uniquely coloured eyes. She was now seated on the stone she had lain on. She watched as they slowly stood before her. "I'm, ummm, the Doctor. This is my companion, Rose." The Doctor said.

"Hi." Rose said quietly. She started wiping her tears away.

"You were right in guessing who I am. The universe has changed." The Lady continued. "There are no others, are there?" she asked the Doctor. "We're the Last." He replied. "I saw. There is one thing I saw I have yet to fulfil. Then I can find him again."

The Lady looked down at the flame coloured grass and gently slid off to stand on it in front of them. She looked deep into Rose's eyes and seemed to ask a silent question of her.

"Then, if I may..." With amazing agility for someone who was asleep for 5000 years the Lady leapt for Rose and pulled her close into her body. Rose didn't resist. All she did was close her eyes and quietly rest her head on the taller Lady's shoulder.

"NO!" shouted the Doctor as Rose went limp in the Lady's arms. For as sure as a Time Lord could read minds, they could put them to sleep.

0o0

"I've been waiting so long." She said forlornly. The Lady cradled Rose in her arms in front of her so the Doctor didn't move.

"Let her go!" He yelled. She closed her eyes, passing her hand over Rose's forehead.

"I see your mind, Time Lord. I gave her the choice."

"No! She doesn't know what she's doing. How can I condemn her when she can have another life?" The Doctor was still yelling.

"You love her?" She asked quietly. There was a pause as the Doctor looked her in the eye and breathed heavily.

"Yes." He answered, just as quietly. He reached for Rose in her arms. "There is no other."

For the first time, the statue smiled. "Then I will do this for you, who remembered my story. Last of the Time Lords." Cradling Rose close again the Lady began to glow.

"Wait!" he yelled again.

"It's what she wants. Time does not always take away- it can also give. And I, I go to my love also." In a second she had dissolved into millions of tiny glowing lights, which entered Rose's body even as she was caught by her Doctor. He swung around to lay her on the grass.

0o0

"I see the past, the present, the future." Rose said tonelessly, staring. "That's what I see, all the time." He echoed, though he wasn't smiling like once before.

She couldn't possibly remember saying that. He had taken her memory, along with a stolen kiss her body didn't quite forget. Rose blinked. "Well, sort of." Her accent had returned with a vengeance. "The future isn't clear. It's changing, like objects in a mist that vanish as soon as you see them. Why does this feel familiar?"

She didn't wait for him to answer. She sat up.

"Ah! My chest is heavy" she brought her hands up to sooth the feeling. "... Oh...I have two hearts." She said calmly. The Doctor waited, shifting his feet.

"I HAVE TWO HEARTS!!"

The Doctor immediately scooped her up into his arms to comfort her. Instead she felt her hearts beating with his as he held her close. She laughed weakly.

"I heard her voice, inside my head. She said she'd been waiting for us. Asked me if I would be with you, forever. If I... loved you. I said yes." She said this quickly. "Then I felt... warm, my mind was in the dark, but I wasn't scared. It never occurred to me... she could... how did she...? Am I...?"

Practical as ever, the Doctor let Rose down then pulled out his psychic paper, along with the sonic screwdriver for good measure. He scanned her head, then listened to her chest, and the two hearts beating. Her hearts were beating fast, and when he looked back into her face he simultaneously showed her the psychic paper. "What? It's blank. Oh." A familiar manic smile had lit up his expression.

"You're a Time Lord. She gave you her unbroken heart, her life, so you keep your humanity but gain, everything I am. You won't ever leave me. It'll be you, and me, among the stars, forever!"

She was a Time Lord. In a breathless second for him, she considered this. _I'm a Time Lord. But I'm 19 as well. _

"Yes!!" She called out. "Yes Yes Yes!" Then she danced up to him again and hugged him hard in her enthusiasm. She was acting her age, after all.

"Now," he said, offering his arm to her.

"To the stars!" she finished eagerly. After all, she had a whole new perspective to explore.


End file.
